Hot flashes inspire hot tunes in "Menopause the Musical"

One subject that used to be talked about in whispers gets full-fledged musical productions in a show returning to Amarillo on Tuesday.

“Menopause the Musical” will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Amarillo Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Buchanan St. Tickets are $35 to $55, plus service charge.

“This is not a subject that was talked about very much out in the open,” said Megan Cavanagh, one of the musical’s four stars. “Women might get together in a coffee klatch and talk about it, but to be talking about it so openly is very empowering.”

Cavanagh, perhaps best known as Marla Hooch in the film “A League of Their Own,” stars as Earth Mother, one of four archetypal characters who meet in a department store and have a hormone-fueled feud over a bra.

The women — also including an Iowa housewife (Annette Verdolino), a soap star (Kathy St. George) and a professional woman (Sandra Benton) — eventually bond and belt out tunes that are parodies of 1960s and ’70s hits.

“(The show) has become kind of a phenomenon,” said Cavanagh, who has performed with multiple casts around the country.

That’s because, she said, the show strikes a chord with its viewers.

“We’re all going through it, we’re all in it together. Let’s just laugh through it as best we can and continue to live our lives.”

That’s how St. George feels, too.

“I choose to look at the aging process as, ‘Let’s go for it. Let’s embrace it and see what’s ahead,’” she said.

St. George, a professional actress since 1979 and a longtime stand-in for Susan Lucci on “All My Children,” said the show isn’t just for women, either.

“We do have men every night screaming laughing because they’ve seen what their wives are going through and can identify,” St. George said. “At the beginning, they’re sort of scrunched down in their seats, but at the end, they can’t wait to buy the CD.”